Annual Report Details

Annual Report 1998-1999
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Whether or not expanded educational opportunities will translate into meaningful development – for an      individual or for society – depends ultimately on whether people actually learn as a result of those opportunities. The focus of basic education must, therefore, be on actual learning acquisition and  outcomes, rather than exclusively upon enrollment, continued participation in organised programmes and  completion of certification requirements.’ 

                                                World Declaration on Education for All, Article 4
`Education not only makes democracy possible; it also makes it essential. Education not only brings into existence a population with an understanding of the public tasks; it also creates their demand to be heard.’

 J. K. Galbraithin 
The Good Society: the Humane Agenda (1996)
Preface
It is almost a decade since the World Conference on Education for All took place at Jomtien, Thailand, in March 1990 convened by the major UN agencies and the World Bank and attended by 155 governments. The conference endeavored to bring up the community’s commitment to basic education as a fundamental human right which, according to this conference, was ‘a common and universal human responsibility.’ And the six goals identified were the expansion of early childhood care and development, universal access to and completion of primary education by the year 2000, a reduction of adult literacy rates to one half of the 1990s levels by 2000 with an emphasis on female literacy, improved learning achievement, based on the attainment of defined levels of performance and expansion of basic education and training for adults and youths, improved dissemination of knowledge, skills, and values required for sustainable development. After this conference we had the World Summit for Children (1990), the World Summit for Social Development (1995) and the Fourth World Conference on Women (1995). All these summits and conferences emphasised and re-emphasised the same objectives of Jomtien World Conference, though we all know that we made very little progress towards achieving these objectives. And when it is the case of India the situation is far worse than the other developing countries. According to the Human Resource Development (HRD) Ministry’s latest annual report, 38.23% of boys and 41.34% of girls leave the school system before reaching the class V stage and by the time the fortunates who survive the primary stage and reach Class VIII, more than half (54.14%) of them drop out. Among these children who drop out 50.70% are boys and 58.61% girls. Less than a third of the primary stage survivors are able to clear secondary school. That’s because 67.65% of the boys and 72.67% of the girls leave the school system. On the other hand according to the official data, the number of children enrolled in primary schools were respectively 10.16, 10.54, 10.82, 10.90, 10.98, and 11.04 crore during the years 1991-92, 92-93, 93-94, 94-95, 95-96 and 1996-97. Thus we find the enrollment in primary schools during this 6 years increased by only a meagre 88 lakh, that is, at an average rate of only about 15 lakh per year. Now we all know that we are adding at least about 1.5 crore additional children every year to our population. Thus the reality is that only about 10% of the additional children are getting enrolled in primary schools and the rest 1.35 crore are left to grow up with out any formal education. So, it is clear that the contribution of formal school education in raising our literacy rate is negative. Indeed our formal literacy rate is declining every year by about 1.4%. This is the status of  education and we are in the same boat as far as other social sectors of development like health, skill development etc. are concerned. 
We continue to experience the same as last year. In the above scenario what Deepalaya is doing may be a drop in the ocean but we have always been hopeful that even a little change will have it’s ripple effect. Looking at the results, it will be legitimate to say that the change is taking place in the right direction. At present we are taking care of 22000 children and their families from 54 slum clusters of Delhi. Education being the priority area in Deepalaya, we are also initiating mutually exclusive possibilities towards better options for our beneficiaries. Efforts are on to develop a non conventional, value based, mass approach to qualitative learning of basic skills in a conducive environment using natural resources and talents leading to self – reliance. The aim of Deepalaya today is to establish an Alternate Learning System, the application of which being technologically competitive offers opportunities to sustain and continuously enrich the life of the beneficiaries – in the case of Deepalaya – the poorest of the poor as we have no other interest. 

An Appeal
Why we need a school in Deepalaya
Target Population
Deepalaya School
The Proposal
Need for the Endowment / Corpus Fund 
Budget
Beneficiaries
Tax Benefit to donors 
Appeal 
How to contribute for Deepalaya children :
For foreign donors including NRIs:
Directly remit to Deepalaya SB.A/c.No.5853 Federal Bank Ltd.
Connaught Circus, New Delhi – 110 001, India by bank transfer. (When
you make direct transfer please intimate us so that we can follow-up).OR
Sent crossed draft/cheque drawn in favour of Deepalaya SB A/c.
No.5853, Federal Bank Ltd., Connaught Circus, New Delhi to Deepalaya,
Plot No.46,Janakpuri Institutional Area, New Delhi – 110 058, India.

For Indian donors :

Directly remit to Deepalaya SB A/c.No.7308 Federal Bank Ltd.
Connaught Circus, New Delhi – 110001 by bank transfer. (please inform
us when you transfer money to this account for follow-up and
confirmation).

OR

Send crossed draft/cheque/pay order drawn in favour of Deepalaya SB
A/c.No.7308 Federal Bank Ltd. Connaught Circus, New Delhi – 110001 to
Deepalaya, Plot No.46, Janakpuri Institutional Area, New Delhi-110058.

In all these cases please inform Deepalaya by E mail atinfo@deepalaya.org   or write to Deepalaya, Plot No.46,
Janakpuri Institutional Area, New Delhi – 110 058.

32 million children in India are not in school. Fundamental right of these children are denied. Out of 1.44 million children in Delhi slums only 0.3 million have access to education. Of those enrolled atleast 30% drop-out before they reach    standard II. This situation calls for profound and significant intervention.  A charity registered under Societies Act, existing for the last 20 years, working in 62 slums, reaching out to over 22,000 children, their families and communities with an integrated approach to emancipation of poor through empowerment, capacity building and social transformation and special areas of Street and Working children, Disabled children and girl child education. Deepalaya has established a school, the only school being established of its kind in India, an NGO Public School in which quality education is to offered to this vulnerable section of society at affordable cost. Deepalaya launched this project in 1996.
Target Population 
Migrants from Bimaru states ( Bihar, Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan, Uttar Pradesh) living in the slums. Specifically this particular Deepalaya School Project will benefit children from 15 slum pockets of South Delhi ( Kalkaji, Okhla Industrial area and Khirkee) having a population of over 102,000, of which around 38000 are children. Precisely 4000 children from the above will benefit directly.
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Deepalaya School 
The estimated cost is Rs 48 million, including cost of land. The building is completed. So far a sum of Rs 40 million has been invested. The contributors include corporates namely H.D.F.C, Eicher Good Earth, Larsen & Toubro, Tata Trust, Volkart Foundation and a large number of individuals.
 This school has become operative effective the July year 1999. The recognition of the school is applied for and awaited.
The Proposal 
As the school became operational, the matter of recurring cost to run the school has become of grave consequence. With the application of Education Act and Rule provisions for recognition, the norms of paying Govt. rate of salaries has became compulsory.
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Need for the Endowment / Corpus Fund The children from the slums cannot afford to pay fees to match the salary prescribed by the education act and rule which is three times what we pay. Hence it is proposed to create an endowment / corpus fund, investment of which in appropriate, Govt. permitted portfolios, would bring in regular income for meeting the recurring cost of the school.

 The average cost of education which includes facilities like tuition, books, uniform, health care, transport, study tour, latent talent development, skill training and administration is estimated to cost Rs 4000 per year per student. This will amount to Rs 10,240,000/- as recurring cost per year.
Budget 
Out of Rs 4000 per student, each student will pay Rs 800 per year as we follow the policy “nothing is for free”. The balance of Rs 3200/- is to be raised through endowment income. It is calculated that this Rs 3200/- can be raised by investing Rs 25000/- earning an average income of Rs 13% per annum i.e. Rs 3250/-.
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Beneficiaries 
Hence each child would need an endowment of Rs 25000/- and for 2560 students, who will study in Deepalaya School in two shifts will require a sum of Rs 64 million as endowment / corpus fund. Similar facilities will be extended to another 1500 children, who will be linked to National Open School, thereby bringing up the beneficiaries to 4060 at any point of time.
Tax Benefit to donors 
Govt. of India, Revenue Dept. has approved Deepalaya proposal to raise an endowment / corpus fund of Rs 64 million by a gazette notification, as approved by a National Committee. The donors are eligible to claim 100% tax rebate under Section 35AC of the IT Act.
Appeal 
We appeal for generous donation of Rs 2,500,000/- to educate 100 children and multiples thereof to raise a sum of Rs 64 million which will educate (2560 + 1500) 4060 children to perpetuity.
How do you donate ?
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Message From The Desk Of Chief Executive

1999  brings us to the culmination of the second decade in the life of Deepalaya. One would look back with nostalgia the past twenty years of ups and downs, upheavals and tranquility. Although the beginning was humble, it was really dynamism with which we sailed the twenty years making Deepalaya, a NGO of considerable credibility. We have been celebrating this during  the past one year. 1998 saw the establishment of the long cherished Deepalaya (NGO) Public School,  a landmark in its history.  The progress achieved during 1998 in constructing the Human Resource Centre as Head Quarters and Training Centre is also worthwhile. Foundation stone laying for the transit home at Gusbethi was another event worth mentioning. An exchange between the children of Deepalaya and that of Holland, England and America making the event really international was another milestone in its history.This year also brought us close to the proximity of other international organisations like Path Finders, Project Concern International etc. The initiative from Greater Noida Development Authority, UNICEF and NIUA to associate with them in education and related areas offered us the necessary fillip as a NGO.

The impact  of 20 years need be seen in the qualitative  change which we have brought about in the lives of children, their parents and communities. It is to be seen to believe that students who have been associated with Deepalaya for 10 to  12 years have really graduated themselves beyond the slums. For economic reasons if they are still living in the slums or slum like conditions, their thought process has changed. The cultural change and social reformation have brought them at par with counter parts among the rich who are learning with them in the schools / colleges. We could see families reformulating their priorities and reassigning their budgets in favour of children. In fact, the demand for quality education is something which we have achieved as we look back to the initial time when we had to virtually pull out children from homes to come to our justifys right in the slums.

The special needs children who are on the street, who are in child labour, who are disabled and the practice of positive discrimination towards the girl child have become diversified priority areas in Deepalaya today.

Our concern for the deteriorating environment, exploding population, spreading of HIV / AIDS has brought us close to very many networks and we also involve in the pursuit of advocacy and policy intervention.

While concluding this note, Deepalaya would ever be grateful to those poor who have involved with us, those donors and friends who supported us and all those who have made this possible. We look forward to the next twenty years to travel many more miles and overcome many more hurdles.

T.K.MATHEW
Secretary & Chief Executive
 

EDUCATION
The purpose here is to create opportunities for education of weaker sections with special emphasis on the girl  child and women so that it becomes an instrument to fight the specific injustices and prevailing inequalities. Deepalaya’s strategy on education aims “To enable the child look beyond slums” through enhancement of their inherent but otherwise unexplored qualities. Emancipation of women towards development and liberation through participation, training and resource management, assuming that all these will lead to creating an awareness, and bring in a change of attitude, skill and competitive ability. Deepalaya believes that education is to develop the potential of each person; as the individual can only develop society, education should take place in every sphere; so theory should not be separated from practice and learning from doing; education is not a process of getting a qualification, rather a process of learning about living in order to transform it; the purpose of education is liberation.
 The most important and delightful achievement of this year in education sector has been the inauguration of Deepalaya School, Kalkaji Ext. This has been a long cherished dream for every member of the Deepalaya family. When we laid the first brick in 1998 we did not know where from the resources would come to complete the project, but we believed in God and his blessings have been continuous. Today, an imposing building is a proof of the fact that ‘Believe in something with honesty and sincerity – everything comes true’ The other highlight of this year has been construction of a new educational centre at V.P Singh Colony, celebration of International Literacy Day, reaching out to 22,000 children through educational activities, reaching out to more than 300 children through working children unit of South Delhi Projects, Abhinaya with visiting Dutch children and children of American and British Schools, Delhi, celebration of Khel utsav (sports festival) etc.

Formal Schools of Deepalaya provide English medium private school like quality education to unprivileged children from Delhi slums.
Pre schools and Remedial Education Centres are used as an effective medium to increase enrollment and check drop out rate.
Non Formal Education Centres are meant for the children who are long time drop outs or who have never been to schools. 60% of these children are enrolled in different formal schools every year. On the other hand Adult Education Centreshelp the parents of the children to increase their level of awareness in the matters affecting their day to day life.
Accredition of National Open School has helped the children who are unable to attend any formal school. In all these cases Sponsorship has played the most important role to support the needy.

Deepalaya Education over the Years
Visit By Dutch ChildrenFCE and ICCO, two Holland based international funding agencies have been supporting Deepalaya for   long.  Last year children from Deepalaya visited Holland under a cultural exchange programme and this year the same was repeated by a group of 20 children who were chosen from 20 Dutch schools. We organised Abhinaya ’99 with these children and children of American and British Schools. 
One of the visiting student Martijn writes: 
JUST A BOY. MY FRIEND 
“Today I went to the night shelter for street & working children of Deepalaya. The children work at New Delhi Railway Station. In the night shelter they are familiarised, they get food and education. There I met Ashwnik. He is 14 and is in the centre since one year. He strives to learn hard and earns his money by carrying luggage as a coolie. He wants to be a scooter repair man. If you ask him about this, his face gets glitter with enthusiasm. Later, when we said good-bye, he asks me to become friends. I got the  impression that this meeting was very important for him. Although we live in different worlds, I feel real friendship. But how to become friends after one conversation? Still, I say ‘yes’. Far away, but yet so close! I give him a little string (arm band) as a token of our friendship and I know I will remember him.”     
Formal Education
At present Deepalaya has three formal public school type schools. Three are  Deepalaya School – Sanjay Colony, Ramditti J.R Narang Deepalaya School and Deepalaya school – Gandhi Basti. The schools are holistic complexes for education, vocational and curricular activities. Deepalaya School, Sanjay Colony, in its approach culminated towards growth and development reflected the cardinal principle that Education is a unique investment in the present for the future. Educational ActivitiesNew admission were made in some classes in the 98-99 session depending on the availability of seats which raised the formal school strength to 1350. However, a number of children took transfer certificate because of the unrecognised status of the school. It went a step further when the Sanjay Colony project become an integrated unit for the disabled and hostel for street and working children. The special wing for the disabled children is functional in close coordination with the formal school. The association of these children with the normal children over the years has helped them to develop a sense of belonging and enter the main stream – which the formal school is consciously striving at. The other achievements  have been participation of the children in a UNESCO test, drawing competition, summer activities on puppet making, clay work, beauty culture etc.
Children in Deepalaya Formal Schools
The Ramditti J.R Narang Deepalaya School is a prime example of corporate and NGO collaboration for education and implementation of slum area development programme. The school offers a broad based, quality education, combining academic with extra curricular activities such as sports, excursions, arts and crafts and latent talent development classes. The school is English medium. The NCERT syllabus is followed in order to main stream and enhance the opportunities of the poor. At present the school has 290 children ( 167 M + 123 F) in the formal section and also takes care of 90 children (45 M + 45 F) through Remedial, Non-Formal and vocational centre of the integrated project. It has also units for working and disabled children in which 39  children (16 M + 23 F ) are participating. The community project aims to emancipate the community through various programmes of the integrated development. E.g. Education, health, socio-economic activities, etc. Special emphasis has been given to health activities through conducting workshops on reproductive health, pulse polio drive, street plays on drug abuse, regular medical checkup, special eye camps, cancer detection camp, etc.School for Slum Children

Formal Schools of Deepalaya provide English medium private school like quality education to unprivileged children from Delhi slums.
Pre schools and Remedial Education Centres are used as an effective medium to increase enrollment and check drop out rate.
Non Formal Education Centres are meant for the children who are long time drop outs or who have never been to schools. 60% of these children are enrolled in different formal schools every year. On the other hand Adult Education Centreshelp the parents of the children to increase their level of awareness in the matters affecting their day to day life.
Accredition of National Open School has helped the children who are unable to attend any formal school. In all these cases Sponsorship has played the most important role to support the needy.

Pre School & Remedial Education
Pre School: Preschools are meant for children in the age group of 3 to 6 years. In Deepalaya we try to inculcate  certain habits so that their formal schooling becomes easier. Children in Pre SchoolsThe other implications of this activity have been facilitation of latent talents, positive environment in and outside the family, awareness among parents and community in general and joyful learning in play way methods. The most important objective here is to higher enrollment in the formal schools and decreasing drop out rate. Over the years we have experienced very visible results in both these aspects. It has been observed that if a child attends pre school the probability of not joining formal school afterwards or dropping out from formal schools becomes lesser. In other words enrollment and continuation in pre schools have ensured larger enrollment in formal schools and lesser drop outs. Maximum use of participative ways – play way methods, pictorial teaching aids, educational tours and cultural activities, are focus points of Deepalaya preschool activities. As a follow up activity the teachers take initiative to admit the children in formal schools when they complete two  years of preschooling. Formation of Mother’s Groups with the mothers of the preschool children, formation of  Thrift & Credit Groups with these mothers and involving the mothers in health related activities and regular follow up through home visits have strengthened preschool as an instrument towards enhancement of overall status of education in the Deepalaya communities. We have pre-schools in both Deepalaya formal schools and integrated community projects. From the projects the children are either admitted in Deepalaya formal schools or formal schools run by MCD. The children of pre schools from Deepalaya formal schools are all admitted in the same schools by default. This year 9 pre-school children from projects have also been admitted to Deepalaya schools. On the other hand from the project pre schools 297 children, with 138 boys and 159 girls, have been admitted in different MCD schools.Remedial Education: Remedial education is another instrument towards enhancing formal schooling and decreasing drop out rate.   We believe that there is a gap between the government school education and public school (private) education.  The parents who can afford high fees, do send their children to public schools. For most of the parents, specially  who live in slums, can’t not afford them and for them government schools are the only place. Deepalaya Remedial Education Centers try to bridge the gap in educational standards by organising quasi tuition classes and providing other facilities to the children who are going to government schools which are otherwise not available in these schools. Approaches and methods like home visits, Mother’s Groupsamong others are the same as in pre schools.  The RECs are run in the integrated projects and at present we have 2248 children (1257 males and 991 females) in this activity.
Beneficiaries in educational activities

Formal Schools of Deepalaya provide English medium private school like quality education to unprivileged children from Delhi slums.
Pre schools and Remedial EducationCentres are used as an effective medium to increase enrollment and check drop out rate.
Non Formal Education Centres are meant for the children who are long time drop outs or who have never been to schools. 60% of these children are enrolled in different formal schools every year. On the other hand Adult Education Centreshelp the parents of the children to increase their level of awareness in the matters affecting their day to day life.
Accredition of National Open School has helped the children who are unable to attend any formal school. In all these cases Sponsorship has played the most important role to support the needy.

Flash Back  Annual Report 86-87

Plan International is followed by ICCO and FCE to support the Deepalaya mission of Enabling The Child Look Beyond Slums. 
Services: The sponsored children are given tuition, transport to and from school, books, stationery and teaching aids, uniforms, nutrition and medical care, educational tours and picnics free of cost, whereas the paying  section children pay tuition fees and transport charges and arrange for themselves every other need except for books and stationery centrally supplied by the school at cost price.
Cooperation with St. John’s School/ Mar Thoma Church Society : The  St.  John’s School was requested to start an  afternoon  free school session for slum children. The society members helped with contacts for enrolment, recruiting of teachers  among other things. The  society  was negotiating with Save the  Children  fund  for support under sponsorship to these children in St. John’s School. 

Non Formal Education
Non Formal Education Centers (NFEs) are for children who are long time drop outs from formal schools or who have never been to school. Our NFEs prepare the children to take admission in the formal school according to their age and capabilities. In other words, we try to mainstream these children through the NFEs. Here also we give emphasis on maximum use of particiaptive methods of learning using teaching aids so that interest of these otherwise demotivated children is sustained.  Multi-grade teaching is the approach for non formal groups as the target group belong to different backgrounds, different culture and age levels. We believe that they need to come to a common platform and at the same time, need to rejoin the formal stream. Deepalaya organises educational tours, cultural activities, etc, as the beneficiary group is with in our integrated system of improving overall status of education of the communities. We try to mainstream 60% of the beneficiaries every year and this year we have admitted 284 children in different MCD schools among whom 144 are males and 140 females. The male-female ratio is almost 50-50 and this is a great achievement for us and the children for whom this activity is targetted.Fantasy Fair: Last year members of the Science and Entertainment clubs  prepared scientific models and held the Science Fair. This year they organised Fantasy Fair to share their fantasies with others. Workshops, at each projects, were conducted, where the children were given with materials like chart papers, colours, thermocol, clay and every freedom to present their fantasies in any form. They prepared models on housing colony right on the river Yamuna., bed rooms for the next generation, all animals drinking from the same spot, walky talky tree, a soft sun and a hot moon, etc. They made paintings on human beings flying in the sky, houses hanging from the sky, Lord Krishna, among others. One visually impaired child painted a situation in which he reflected that he wants to walk normally like other children. The children also wrote poems. Gole Kuan children prepared a role play in which every actor has a mask on their face depicting animals.

All these models, paintings, writings, role plays along with songs prepared on fantasies were presented in the Fantasy fair held on 18th August 1998 at Deepalaya School, Kalkaji Extn. Children lived in their dreams during the two hours of the fair. For them, it was a great opportunity to share the things which are otherwise not shared. As it was a new experience, they gave us the hope that the world can be improved.

In Deepalaya Enhancement of latent talents of the children are given with maximum importance. The activities not only increase their confidence level but also repeatedly proves that, provided with proper opportunities, they  can come at par with their elite counterparts.

Formal Schools of Deepalaya provide English medium private school like quality education to unprivileged children from Delhi slums.
Pre schools and Remedial Education Centres are used as an effective medium to increase enrollment and check drop out rate.
Non Formal Education Centres are meant for the children who are long time drop outs or who have never been to schools. 60% of these children are enrolled in different formal schools every year. On the other hand Adult Education Centreshelp the parents of the children to increase their level of awareness in the matters affecting their day to day life.
Accredition of National Open School has helped the children who are unable to attend any formal school. In all these cases Sponsorship has played the most important role to support the needy. 

Flash Back  Annual Report 80-81
  The society was formally registered under the Societies Registration Act XXI on 3.12.1980. 

The society and the school have to grow substantially before it can obtain recognition and become eligible for a plot of land to construct the school building. The main bottleneck is the lack of resources. The society has registered for a van to be used as conveyance for students and delivery is expected to be obtained  within the next six months for which money is to be collected. 
The members are exhorted to take further keen interest in the development of the school and the society and uphold them as a model institution worthy of its objectives. 

Flash Back  Annual Report 81-82

    Children from weaker sections got focus in Deepalaya. Children are very happy, they have got a van to come to the school. 

Education of children of weaker sections 
The members concern to provide good education to  children from  weaker  sections  was voiced many a  time  in  meetings.  The  attempt  to  provide  books,  uniforms  and   fee concessions to very few students did not really make any dent  in the problem. It was found difficult, initially, to integrate  the children  from  weaker sections with those attending  the  school now.  Hence it was felt appropriate to run a parallel school  for them.  However  the  financial disability  and  lack of motivated  social workers  are  the  two major bottlenecks,  which  the  society  is planning to overcome in 1983. 
Adult Education
This year adult education got a special emphasis as we started implementing IPP VIII project. The objective has been ambitious as we planned to literate 5000 women from South Delhi slums. Other than implementation of IPP VIII, we have literacy centres in all most all our integrated projects.  Some of the objectives of adult education in Deepalaya are developing self confidence, inculcation of an urge for literacy, relevance of learning in day to day life, increasing chances for freedom of expression etc. There is no limit to this list as adult education as an activity has far reaching impacts. Due to problems in finding motivated volunteers, space and continuous monitoring this activity was not getting proper focus and attention. The existing centres have been the result of identification of illiterate mothers from Mother’s Group and Skill Training Centres.The IPP VIII project has been instrumental in reenergising activity in a planned and systematic way. The project covers 9 slum locations of South Delhi and the activities are conducting literacy classes, canvassing for a small & happy family, creating selfhelp groups, conducting training & awareness programmes on issues like reproductive health, dropsy, HIV/AIDS, age of marriage, cancer, pulse polio, tuberculosis, sanitation among others. Lot of importance has been given on individual counselling of the beneficiaries on family planning, eye care, management of family resources, child care, etc. so that the adult education as an activity is sustained and at the same time achieves objectives in  totality.

Formal Schools of Deepalaya provide English medium private school like quality education to unprivileged children from Delhi slums.

Pre schools and Remedial Education Centres are used as an effective medium to increase enrollment and check drop out rate.
Non Formal Education Centres are meant for the children who are long time drop outs or who have never been to schools. 60% of these children are enrolled in different formal schools every year. On the other hand Adult Education Centreshelp the parents of the children to increase their level of awareness in the matters affecting their day to day life.
Accredition of National Open School has helped the children who are unable to attend any formal school. In all these cases Sponsorship has played the most important role to support the needy.

Sponsorship & Open School Education
Sponsorship – An Instrument Towards All-round Development Of Deepalaya Children: Deepalaya sponsorship programme is meant for supporting children from the communities so that they can sustain their endeavor for education, maintain good health and in the process become self reliant and self dependent. Sponsorship Division of Deepalaya was started in 1990 with an aim of coordinating all sponsorship work of donor agencies like SCF and AeA and to deal with  Deepalaya’s own sponsorship programme. Contribution towards sponsorship covers tuition fee, uniform, books & stationary, health check up, skill training and other required activities meant for the development of the children.

A Sponsor Parent is meeting his sponsored child. This is Maitree Shree – the annual function for sponsored children and their parents.

Open School Education – A Viable Alternative To Unprivileged Children: In our country it is not possible for all children to get admission in formal schools as many schools are adversely disproportionate to the number of children. On the other hand, many children are working, while they should be in schools or have opted out of school to join income generating activities. There are some cases in which the child does not get the chance to join formal education at a proper age though keen  to. For all these categories of children (for that matter for the adults too) we have open school education facility provided by the National Open School (NOS). Under NOS our children get the chance to appear in exams at different levels and we organise PCP classes during holidays for them. Deepalaya is an accredited institution of NOS since 1992 for academic and vocational courses. For the  November ’98 batch the success rate was 18.07 which is more than our national average. At present we have 2038 children (including this year’s 499)  enrolled in Deepalaya NOS,among whom 70% belong to Delhi slums.

Formal Schools of Deepalaya provide English medium private school like quality education to unprivileged children from Delhi slums.

Pre schools and Remedial Education Centres are used as an effective medium to increase enrollment and check drop out rate.
Non Formal Education Centres are meant for the children who are long time drop outs or who have never been to schools. 60% of these children are enrolled in different formal schools every year. On the other hand Adult Education Centreshelp the parents of the children to increase their level of awareness in the matters affecting their day to day life.
Accredition of National Open School has helped the children who are unable to attend any formal school. In all these cases Sponsorship has played the most important role to support the needy.

Health
HEALTH CARE FOR SLUM DWELLERS :
Health ActivityMany people while visiting our projects or schools ask ‘Don’t you have clinics or hospitals for the slum dwellers? The answer has always been in the negative. In Deepalaya we have only preventive and promotive care. The terms are self explanatory, the objectives are clear. The activities conducted under these services are immunization, awareness, training,   slide & video shows, eye check ups, TB detection, deworming, diarrhoea management, competitions and regular sanitation drives. Further categorization of the activities can be done as pre and post natal care and the focus of all these activities are women and children.

Millions of people living in rural India are deprived of basic health care. PHCs (primary health care centre) are there in many villages but seldom one finds a doctor in those PHCs. After passing out from medical institutions joining a PHC is not even the last choice for the budding doctors, leave apart those who has gained some experience in the field. Without going into further detail we must say that the situation in Delhi is no better than in other parts. Hospitals are over crowded, required number of doctors are not there, atmosphere is filthy, there is no body to guide (most apathetic environment) and above all the poor have no faith on these hospitals. To them these are resorts of compulsion. The slums are served by the quacks. We have laws against such practice, but non   implementation of those laws are always overlooked. For the slum people these quacks are good departmental stores – you ask for anything it is there – homeopathy, allopathic, ayurvedic (traditional) or voodooism. And in a situation like this only awareness generation and establishment of linkages with Health Institutions work.

For an organisation like Deepalaya it is not possible to provide extensive curative services to the people, and doing it will again be duplication of services. At present we have extensive collaborations with 19 premier health organisations of Delhi like AIIMS, Rajendra Prasad Eye Institute, Indian Cancer Society, Delhi TB Associations, MCD Health Department etc. They have expertise and we have the capability to mobilise community to avail the facilities being provided by these institutions.

Our health centres are visited by the doctors of these institutions, they come along  with mobile facilities. Our Basti Sevikas (Health Workers) make door to door visit to identify specific problems, whenever required they give advice, take them to our health centre, or refer them to particular hospitals where particular kinds of facilities are available. Many a times the Basti Sevikas accompany the sick person to the hospital or clinic along with other family members so that they are not unduly harassed. The Basti Sevikas are identified from the communities and trained by Deepalaya through these linkages with other health institutions. As stated earlier, the focus of all these activities are the mothers and the children. Children because they are more vulnerable than others and specific precautions keep them away from diseases and mothers because if they become aware of the requirement of their family and get to know how to prevent them, the whole family is benefited. On the other hand better health care of the mothers ensures healthy citizens.

Health Activities
Family Planning :  Our family planning activities have reached a stage where the women are coming forward on their own to avail the facilities available in the health clinic or facilities which can be availed through the established linkages with other institutions. Since last April 68 women adopted permanent methods and the welcome change is that 50% of them are below the age of 28. This was possible as the counseling part has become the responsibility of everyone including the Social Entrepreneurs.Pulse Polio Campaign : This year we organised Pulse Polio campaign by joining hands and seeking support of Delhi government, on 6th December ’98 and 17th January ’99. The response was overwhelming with a total of 15516 ( 7756 Males and  7760 Females) children having been administered polio drops. The campaign included various activities organised prior to the administration of pulse polio drops, which were door to door survey by basti sevikas, poster making competition, individual and group meetings, nukkad sabha, candle march by street and working children, mashal rally, Lok Jagriti Abhiyan, film shows, puppet shows, basti sabha, bal sabha, mass propaganda etc. The enthusiastic response of the people made the programme a grand success.